In the mean time
by cnohero
Summary: What were Emmett and Rosalie doing when Edward first brought Bella to the Cullen’s house?It would be really, really cool to get a few reveiws, good, bad, whatever.
1. Chapter 1: Meanwhile

**Disclaimer: All the characters, and any references to Twilight all belong to the Stephenie Meyer. Her superhuman writing ability leaves all of us other aspiring writers in the dust.**

**(Authors note: This is just a guess of what I think may have happened during Bella's first visit to the Cullen's.)****  
**

Emmett's POV

I had followed Rosalie out to the shed behind the house. She was changing the oil in my Jeep. "Rose, I can do that." I insisted, knowing she would never allow me to help especially when she was in this _kind_ of mood.

She shook her head, as she slid out from beneath the Jeep. Her beautiful brow creased, and a scowl crossed her beautiful face. No matter how distasteful the expression on her face she was still gorgeous. She had been silent for the last twenty minuets since she had come out to work on the cars. This was never a good sign, when Rosalie was unhappy usually everyone knew about it. Previously, her anger and displeasure had almost been tangible; none of us had needed Jasper's special gift to know what she was feeling. She had stormed down the stairs, growling in frustration, shortly after Alice made the announcement. I recalled the events earlier this morning.

* * *

Alice had skipped through the house, "Bell's coming! Edward is going to bring her!"

Esme darted into the living room to join the rest of us, "Quick, is everyone's rooms clean? I need to makes sure there's food if she is hungry. What do people eat now days? Is it too cold in here, I can't tell?" She fluttered across the room to fluff the pillows on the sofa. "Why didn't Edward tell us he was bringing her over, when he came home to change?"

"Esme, calm down," Carlisle gently gripped her shoulders to stop her nervous fidgeting. "He probably did not know if she would accept the invitation to come see us," he said meaningfully.

I found myself smiling at Esme and her desire to make things perfect. It was not like we were going to have to entertain Bella with tea, and cookies, making polite small talk. She really wanted this to workout for Edward.

"He did mention the possibility of her coming to me," muttered Jasper. His eyes darted to the door perhaps planning an exit. "He encouraged me to keep my distance from her."

"And you didn't tell us!" Alice and Esme exclaimed simultaneously. They both scowled at Jasper for keeping his secret. We were not used to worrying about anyone keeping secrets from us, but that had all changed in the last few weeks.

_The man is crazy_. _What is he thinking? He must really have a 'thing' for this girl._ I automatically glanced to my side wanting to wrap my arms around _MY _girl. But she was not there; I looked up to see Rosalie standing at the top of the stairs. I smiled up at her, and started up the stairs. _She_ was not smiling, actually she was positively frowning.

"Not only is he spending time with humans, but he is making us hang around them too," she hissed when I reached her level. "He has to bring her to our house! This is our house, the place where we should be able to be ourselves. We should not have to worry about it being invaded with humans." Rosalie was fuming over the announcement of our new visitor.

"I expect you to all be on your best behavior!" Esme insisted still nervous. I did not know if she had heard Rosalie's comments or not, but I felt certain that if she had, she would have been more upset.

"Its not like she's coming to live with us," I tried to sooth Rosalie's tension.

Apparently I had said the wrong thing, for Rosalie's expression was shocked and full of repulsion. "Ugh, don't even talk like that! I can't believe he is doing this. It's sick and wrong!" She shuddered and spun around, walking down the hall to our room. She emerged seconds later in her 'work' clothes, "I don't want to see this," she muttered, and I followed her out of the house.

* * *

My mind jumped back to the present, Rosalie was now pacing from one side of the garage to the other like a caged animal. I heard her mutter phrases of disgust and annoyance under her breath, I caught words like "insane", "abnormal", "selfish" and "it's so rude." I leaned against the Jeep and watched her passage, deciding it was better to let her vent her anger.

The sound of a disturbingly loud engine roared up to the house. That sound must drive Rosalie nuts, as she imagined all the tuning up the truck must need. The engine was cut off, and it was several seconds before I heard the doors open and close. I felt a sense of excitement in my stomach I wanted to be there to actually look in the eyes of this girl that had captivated my brother. I had seen her at school, of course, but I never _really_ looked at her, or got close enough to know what she _really_ smelled like, neither Rosalie nor Edward would have liked that. I was very curious to know what Bella would think of our family.

"They're here," I stated the obvious. Rosalie had stopped her pacing and was staring through the outbuilding window towards the house. "Rose, let's just go in and meet her. She might not be all that bad, give her a chance."

Her face contorted into a disappointed almost painful expression, it made my insides tighten. She felt like I was not supporting her I realized. I could not stand to see her unhappy, it tore me apart. I felt so torn between making her happy and doing what I thought was right. Her eyes shifted to the floor, "No, you go if you want. I have other things to do." She turned to walk towards Carlisle's car.

I could not go inside now, I realized. If I did it would be plain to Rosalie that I was unsupportive of her feelings. I sat on the hood of the Jeep, and watched her work. She began to look calmer as she tuned the engine to perfection. This was Rosalie's form of therapy, it made her happy, and I just enjoyed seeing her happy.


	2. Chapter 2: Her Rage

**Disclaimer: There are references to characters and dialog in this story which were, written by Stephenie Meyer, which I cannot take credit for. **

**A/N: This is my version of the events leading up to the Baseball game. And my idea of what Emmett's POV may have been at that time.**

Emmett's POV

I danced around the outbuilding, beaming ecstatically, "Its going to rain! There's going to be thunder and lightening!" Jasper had just come out to the building to tell us that Alice predicted there would be as storm, and that a baseball game was being planned.

"One would think he lived in New Mexico, or Arizona, instead of Washington," Jasper said wryly glancing at Rosalie. "It's like he's never seen rain."

"Yes, he isn't usually_ this _excited." Rosalie was smiling. She had not smiled all day, this was wonderful!

It was going to storm, we were going to play baseball, and Rosalie was smiling, life couldn't get much better than this. I sauntered over to her, and placed one hand on her waist and the other in her hand. I danced her around in a cheerful jig. I hummed the music from _Singing in the Rain_ as we spun in circles. She began to giggle, in a very human way, although I would never tell her that. I know I was acting like a complete fool, but I would do just about anything to make her laugh at this point.

"Emmett! I need- I need- to go get cleaned up- so we can go play," Rosalie was laughing so hard it was difficult for her to finish the sentence. I released her and she left her beloved cars, and even more beloved husband, to go get ready.

Jasper was still leaning against doorway. He had been entertained by my lavish display of joy, over the upcoming game. Perhaps he was enjoying the blissful emotions that were wafting around. There had been a lot of negative feelings hanging around the house lately, and I knew it all hit him hard. Jasper, often unintentionally got caught in the middle of whatever drama came along.

"Teammates?" he asked smiling. When Jasper and I teamed up we could be unstoppable, except when Alice and Edward were in league together, they could give us a run for our money.

"Oh, yeah, brother," we playfully knocked fists, and followed Rosalie into the house.

There had not been much of Edward's competitive side present lately. I missed that about him. The last decent round of competition we experienced was a snowball fight, several weeks….no, actually it was months ago. Hopefully now that he was finally letting loose and hanging out with this Swan girl he could stop brooding. He could cease to spend his time hiding in his room, and rejoin the rest of the world.

* * *

"You what? You invited _her_!" Rosalie shrieked at Alice. The entire family was gathered at the clearing where we liked to play baseball.

"I didn't think it was a good idea either," Jasper muttered to me under his breath. His eyes were on Alice, lest she was in any real danger from Rosalie's wrath.

"And you! You let him take the _Jeep_!- to got get her." Rosalie turned her fury on me.

_Oops_. I had known that Edward was bringing Bella, maybe I should have mentioned that fact to Rosalie earlier. Edward was bringing Bella into Rosalie's territory, not only at home, but in the clearing as well, it was not setting well with her. _Really what was the problem?_ She could only watch after all, she would not be prancing around the field with us, or anything.

"He said he was taking her off-roading," I protested.

"Rose, you might as well get used to the idea, Bella might be around quite a lot," Esme was coming to our defense.

I was torn. I wanted Rose to be happy, and she clearly was not happy in the least. What Esme said might be true. I wished deeply that Rosalie would get over her jealously and distaste for Bella. When you love someone you love them unconditionally despite their faults. Even if Rosalie's perspective was a little warped on the subject, I still loved her.

Rosalie stormed across the grass. She folded her arms defiantly across her chest, and perched on an outcropping of rock at the edge of the clearing. Jasper and Alice walked out to the clearing to throw the ball around.

I love Rosalie, but I also love… baseball. I glanced wistfully back Alice and Jasper, as Esme and I made our way to the rock where Rosalie was pouting.

Carlisle had been quiet through the whole exchange. He seemed to be resigned to the fact that Rosalie was not going to accept Bella anytime soon. He was carefully measuring the distance between the bases with a practiced and careful stride, when we heard _the sound_. It was a sound we had not heard in a long time. The sound of laughter, not just any laugh but the one that belonged to our recently despondent brother. It was loud and echoed off the rim of the mountains. If there were any hikers out today they would probably be frightened into thinking bears were in the area. Everyone stopped what they were doing to listen to the once familiar sound. Edward had not laughed like that in a very long time even before this whole fiasco with the human girl. He was pleasant enough it was true, but he was not prone to outburst of hysteria like some of our family members.

Esme was positively beaming, " They must be close." She whispered to me as we were getting close to Rosalie's site of self imposed isolation.

Rosalie looked away as we joined her on the outcrop of rock. I sat next to her and leaned against her slightly then quickly leaned away, a motion that sent her rocking back and forth. I was just trying to get her attention, but she glared at me out of the corner of her eye. She was not in the mood for flirting.

Esme cleared her throat. "I'm guessing that you two will be on a team with Jasper?" On the way to the clearing, she had heard Jasper and I plotting the best positions to which to assign our team members. She was trying to find something to talk about that would not antagonize Rosalie.

Suddenly, a scent drifted through the trees, it was a very pleasant smell. It was sort of like the freesia shampoo Rosalie used to use. Because of this smell we knew Edward and Bella would be coming through the trees long before we actually saw them. It was the first time I'd actually caught the scent of Bella when it was not mixed in with scents of all the other students at Forks High. It was a nice smell I could admit that, but nothing so powerful it was unbearable. I had encountered the scent that was irresistible before. The kind of smell that allowed the animal to take over, and before you knew it, you had done things you never thought possible. I did not like to remember that experience. But I did have an appreciation for the level of discipline Edward employed when hanging around with Bella. He must really liker her. No, her must really _love_ her. I started to feel almost as excited as Esme was. For Edward to finally find someone to love… that was significant.

We turned around to greet Edward and Bella, they had emerged from the forest behind the rock where we were waiting. Rosalie stood erect and stomped towards the middle of the clearing, walking purposefully away from Edward and Bella. I stared at her retreating form, before deciding it would do me no harm to greet the new couple.

"Was that you we heard, Edward?" Esme queried.

"It sounded like a bear chocking," I added.

"That was him," Bella informed us wryly, with a smile. She looked nervous, who could blame her?

"Bella was being unintentionally funny," Edward responded. As if that were any excuse for such a sound.

Alice bounded next to us, "Its time!" A loud roll of thunder punctuated her announcement. She was showing off a little, but it was excusable, she did have an amazing talent, and she was very excited.

"Eerie, isn't it?" I winked at Bella. I knew it could be unsettling when Alice was right on mark.

"Let's go," Alice grabbed my hand and we ran out to the field. It was strange not hiding our abilities in front of a human, as we ran at our full speed. It was kind of nice in a way too, not to have to pretend to be something we are not.

I had not really been paying attention to what was said after Alice and I left the trio. Out of the blue, I heard Bella exclaim, "Go team!"

I had to chuckle at the forced enthusiasm in her voice, she was not the cheerleader type. Edward zipped past us, and I knew Esme would watch over Bella as she refereed our game. _If Edward changed Bella we could add Esme to the game and we could still have even teams_ I mused. Unfortunately Edward was not at all keen on that idea. I shuddered as I remembered the argument that had taken place several weeks ago, about changing Bella.


End file.
